Do You Need a Food Detective?

Make Every Mouthful Count

Good morning! Here's to a wonderful weekend for you and those you hang out with! Today's blog is to introduce a new testing program I am now offering in clinic to help identify food intolerance reactions. An intolerance is quite different to an allergy and often the mistake is made due to simple grammatical default. Some say they are allergic to something when it is often an intolerance reaction they are experiencing - which is less severe but just as annoying and debilitating for some.

An allergy involves a predominantly different immunoglobulin (IgE) response to an intolerance reaction (IgG). When your body has to launch an IgE (allergy) response - its literally all systems go! This is why an allergy is often so severe or life threatening as in a bee sting or peanut - most of the vital tissues are inflamed as they deal with the allergen - hence the swellings and itch!

In an intolerance - the IgG response is relatively a lot slower to present and often over time - in some cases an untreated intolerance may lead to an IgE allergic response so it is important to manage intolerances effectively to avoid this. I have seen more severe intolerance responses occur for example after a viral infection. I like to describe an intolerance response to a game of hide and seek. If the food for example is a low grade intolerant food - it stays 'hidden' from your immune system for a while longer whilst other poor hiding spots are revealed by the IgG response to other more obvious foods such as wheat or dairy or eggs.

Most of us will have some IgG response to foods - its when you are having symptoms such as recurrent hay fever, eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis, headaches and fatigue that are not explainable and digestive upsets that ups the ante on doing something about it. For example - I have recently been working with a patient who initially came in for hay fever support so we started with the obvious areas there - yeast and sugar control diet which also removes wheat and dairy for a period of time. During the first few weeks her hay fever improved remarkably - but her eczema was still present and on some days - flared up. Her yeast control diet saw her eating a lot more protein in the form of eggs and fish. On performing the Food Detective intolerance testing - it was found on the spot that her response to eggs was very strong. She is now on a modified yeast control diet without eggs. She revealed to me that she was eating up to 3 sometimes 4 eggs a day in the last week or so. As this was just recent, we will keep you posted.

If you suspect you have an intolerance reaction to a food and some of the symptoms mentioned above - here is what I suggest:

1. Remove the known foods if you are aware of them from your diet for at least an 8 week period. Remember to remove also any traces of that food as well. For example if eggs are known to aggravate you - noodles with eggs in them may engage the IgG response still - even on a minute level it can affect how and if your immune system 'resets' itself.

2. Increase the power of protein digestion in the stomach region. This can be done using apple cider vinegar in water sipped slowly with the meals or if you are really sluggish in the digestive area - a herbal/nutrient blend I suggest to super boost enzyme production through chain reaction from the stomach to the small intestines.

3. Power up your immune system with the aim to dampen down the appropriate immune responses to inflammation. This is something I suggest you do with supervision and practitioner guidance as often it requires therapeutic doses. Off the counter, you could try a good quality vitamin C preparation to start with.

4. After the 8 week period, slowly introduce one food at a time to test for intolerance responses. If there is a response - that food needs more time out of the hide and seek game.

5. Consider probiotic super foods as a way to predigest foods that are being reintroduced - Super Kids Food is great for kids and adults.

Remember - if you suspect you have a sensitivity to foods, even a small amount can engage your immune system - don't you want your immune system on the ready for more important jobs like viral and chronic disease management?

*Please note - the Food Detective is a finger prick test and can be performed on babies with a heel prick. A very small amount of blood is needed to gather a very accurate 60 food test panel.

As a naturopath I believe that patients are looking for empathy, results oriented and achievable health advice as well as consideration for the family budget when it comes to supplement and remedy selection.Nicky Wood -Gold Coast Naturopath